Dr. Suzuki talked about the relationship between parent, child and teacher as a triangle...more to come.

Roles and Responsibilities of Parents and Parent Volunteers

We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the Suzuki philosophy by reading such books as Dr. Suzuki's Ability Development from Age Zero and Nurtured By Love, William Starr's To Learn With Love, and Ed Sprunger's Helping Parents Practice, Making it Easier.

A key feature of the Suzuki method of teaching is parental involvement. The 'designated Suzuki' parent attends lessons and group classes with their child in order to be adequately informed to provide the appropriate instruction at home. This works best if the parent takes notes during lessons and makes sure s/he understands what the teacher is asking for. These notes serve as the basis for the home practice sessions. Some parents find that audio or video taping lesson is also very useful for home practice.

You are responsible for creating a supportive home setting for practicing and for supervising your child's daily practice and listening. We encourage you to set a positive and encouraging tone in your home practice sessions (the ideas in Ed Sprunger's book will help immeasurably with this).

Parents of beginners are expected to attend the appropriate Parent Education classes.

From time to time, you will also need to obtain a properly sized instrument and purchase appropriate music instruction books and recordings.

ESM parents also play a critical role in helping our program and special events run smoothly. We rely on parent volunteers to help with such jobs as refreshments for our concerts and recitals, managing the inventory of used instruments for sale by ESM families, set up and clean up at events, tasks at the workshop, etc. (see Parent Volunteer form).

Parent Volunteers

ESM parents play a critical role in helping our program and special events run smoothly. Some jobs give you a chance to work with other parents and exchange information and experiences. We rely on parent volunteers to help with such jobs as managing the inventory of used instruments for sale by ESM families, set up and clean up at events, and various tasks at the workshop. These jobs are described in our Parent Volunteer form. We urge each family to sign up for one job during the year.